Boxing trainer knew bomb suspect, slain officer

BOSTON (AP) – The dead Boston Marathon bombing suspect and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology officer allegedly killed by the suspect and his brother have links to the same boxing trainer.

Bob Covino co-founded the Somerville Boxing Club in the late 1970s. He says 26-year-old bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev (tsarh-NY’-ev) trained at that gym several years ago. Covino says the MIT officer slain by the bombing suspects, Sean Collier, began volunteering with him at a gym in a different location in Somerville seven or eight months ago.

Covino says it’s very unlikely that the two men crossed paths, because he hasn’t seen Tsarnaev for several years and Collier only came over recently.

Covino says Collier had been helping teach younger boxers. The officer also set up a website for the gym.

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